This invention is in the field of deep bore hole drilling machines. More particularly, it is concerned with the drilling of oil wells to depths of the order of 8 to 25,000 feet. It is concerned, moreover, with a design of drilling apparatus which is demountable into many small subassemblies, each of which has a total weight of its own, of less than 4,000 pounds, so that it can be carried by a helicopter.
While it has been common in the area of small drilling machines, such as used for geophysical operations, to build these in separate, small units so that they could be transported easily by backpack or by pack mule into remote areas, it has never been practical heretofore to design a drilling rig which is required to drill to great depths, in the form of a demountable system with the limitations on each part to be under 4,000 pounds.